As I have gotten older, I have come to realize that looking youthful comes down to some very basic products and practices like staying hydrated, sleeping well, reducing the amount of stress in your life, a great skincare routine (my favourite part!) and staying out of the sun. Sure, a little bit of vitamin D is great, but ultimately wearing sunscreen has been my way of ensuring my skin looks its best! If I need some colour, bronzer and self tanner are my friends, but I will admit that I have come to embrace my natural skin tone and not bother most of the time.
In the midst of the green beauty movement, we now have some really amazing mineral sunscreens as options and after reviewing some bath and body products from vegan and EWG verified brand ATTITUDE last summer, I was excited to see a selection of suncare products from the brand at London Drugs back in June. I was most excited to see if this mineral sunscreen would be just as comfortable to wear as my "light as air" chemical suncreen favourites!
PR samples
Since I work an office job, the only real sun exposure I get five days a week is on my face and with this current heat wave, maybe my arms as I take transit to get to and from work (holy expensive downtown Vancouver parking!). The Attitude Face Stick SPF 30* protects against broad spectrum UVA/UVB rays and is non-nano (no nano particles that can alter DNA).
When it came to application, I was not a huge fan of the stick. Though this sunscreen is not as thick as other mineral versions, I found the "facial drag" coefficient a bit high. I would much rather have used this format on my body and used a liquid on my face because even with the stick application format, I still had to massage the product in to blend everything out. There is also a light whitish cast, but it vanishes quickly. I used this underneath makeup and with some setting powder, that tackiness which comes with a lot of sunscreens, disappeared and I was honestly fairly comfortable wearing this to work. On a daily basis though? I would reserve this stick for a day I am not wearing makeup and stick to my chemical sunscreens.
I much preferred the regular cream Attitude Sunscreen SPF 30* in terms of application, but it is much thicker and sticky feeling than the Face Stick so I tend to just use this just on my body. It has a light tropical coconut scent and zero white cast once rubbed onto the skin and though this is definitely one of the nicer mineral body sunscreens I have tried, I am still partial to my Clarins and Shiseido ones in terms of texture. I am not as picky about having "healthy" sunscreens as I think of sunscreens more as medicine and sometimes "chemicals" just work better at giving you BOTH SPF and a nicer texture.
This Attitude After Sun Melt-In Gel* may be for soothing sun-exposed skin, but in this heat I have actually been using it as moisturizer because it has shea butter and coconut oil along with mint, cucumber and a touch of menthol for some seriously soothing hydration! The scent is refreshing and absorbs incredibly quickly so I'm not waiting around in the heat for my moisturizer to do its thing! It's also kind of nice on my calves after a long day at work and even NICER when you have someone to massage this into your legs for you ;-)
Final verdict: While I had some hits and misses with these products, I think these are great options for people who are looking to stick to green beauty and/or vegan suncare. I would never have thought there would be so many options now, but I feel like when it comes to my face, I really prefer a light consistency. Coola is probably the most lightweight mineral sunscreen I have used and I have found it hard to find another mineral face option that has been on par with it though the convenience of the Face Stick is a definite plus.
You can find ATTITUDE products at London Drugs and online at www.attitudeliving.com
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